Finding a Way
In the brisk morning’s light, the two groups had split up once more. Lyra was once again accompanying a portion of the Poet’s crew, but this time their focus wasn’t on food. They needed to find the gemstones.
Fog rolled over a field of grass that grew up taller than any of the ponies themselves. The group marched through the long grass in separate paths; Clover had suggested that they create different trails in case an animal decided to follow them. Needless to say, this made Lyra uncomfortable.
Each pony was using some kind of scanner to attempt to find geologic deposits of gemstones. They weren’t as precise as the one the Doctor had constructed, but they were a start.
The groups had swelled in number since the previous night. Brimstone, Clover, and Moonshine had been joined by Cortland. Elsewhere, the Doctor and Derpy were assisted by Starstruck herself and Cinder the dragon. The repairs on the Poet were as complete as they could be given their resources.
Cortland was a reddish pony, and her country dialect stuck out more in person than it had over the speakers. She reminded Lyra of the Apple family from Ponyville, and so she felt that she had to ask.
“Excuse me,” Lyra asked, “are you a member of the apple family? Out of Ponyville?”
“Yup,” Cortland replied, stepping out of the long grass to make eye contact with Lyra by the forest’s edge. Others were still trickling out of the field.
“Would you happen to know the name of your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents by any chance?” Lyra followed up. She only received a blank stare in return.
“Alright everypony,” Moonshine said, “Scanners out.”
Each pony took out their instruments, and started making adjustments in an attempt to zero in on gemstone deposits. They sat quietly for a few minutes working with their gear before Brimstone spoke.
“I’ve got mine set to look for caverns, and it looks like there’s a system of caves about four miles toward the mountain,” she said.
“Is anypony detecting valuable gemstone deposits coming from that area?”
“It’s out of range,” Cortland replied, “If y’ask me, I think we oughta go in that direction and get a better reading sir. It’d make sense for the stones to be in that kind of place.”
“Excellent,” Moonshine said, “Keep together, and keep monitoring those devices.”
****
The Doctor sat on a stump by the edge of the water, fitting a wetsuit on. Derpy had thought he looked weird without his leather coat when he had taken it off to get changed, and in a bright orange wetsuit he looked totally unnatural.
She, Moonshine, and Cinder were already suited up and ready to go. The Doctor was the last one, and once he had prepared himself he strapped a rebreather tank over his back and waded into the waters with them. He fit a mask over his face, and dunked his head in the water for good measure.
“Everything working?” Starstruck asked.
“It’s just fantastic,” he assured the Captain, “Now, the TARDIS resembles a blue box, a police box from the 20th century. They had them all over Canterlot and some of the bigger cities. Anyways, it’s not actually made of wood, so it’ll be sunk down to the very bottom of this lake. Do these suits have lights?”
“It’s built into the mask,” said Cinder the dragon, “Haven’t you ever used a suit like this before?”
“No,” the Doctor said, “How do I turn it on?”
“You say ‘lights please’ into the comm unit built into the mask,” Cinder explained, “We can also talk to each other that way. I’ve set us up on a short range radio network.”
“Well, it’s not like anypony else is gonna eavesdrop,” Derpy said. She waded in farther up to her chin, and ducked her head under the water. The others soon followed. The group went in deeper until they were over their heads, and then started to descend into the depths of the lake.
Aquatic plant life wavered in the cool wetness. A small fish zipped in an out of the tangles of seaweed sticking out of an underwater rock cliff, nipping at even smaller organisms trying to hide in the plants.
Derpy's key started pulsating again, growing faster the deeper they descended.
"This lake feeds out into a river, which must go all the way to the ocean," the captain noted, using the radio to communicate, "and that means we're looking at some saltwater species that have adapted to freshwater."
"I'd say so, yeah," the Doctor replied through his radio, "This is just a single corner of the lake. From what I can tell, it bends around like a sickle to the west and stretches out for at least another fifteen to twenty miles."
"Is that significant?" Starstruck asked.
"Yeah," replied the Doctor, "A lake that big can support an extensive ecosystem, and some sizeable creatures. Big pond, bigger fish."
"Like dinosaurs?" asked a voice. The Doctor couldn't tell if it was Derpy asking the question or Cinder the dragon.
"No, more like 'marine reptiles'. Think of Ichthyosaurs, though it's a little too late in the game for many of those to be around."
A very large shadow loomed in the distance, gliding through the water and disappearing deeper into the darkness.
****
Cortland was the first to reach the edge of the rocky hillside on the edge of the mountain. The others were still catching up one at a time due to the strenuous conditions of the trip. They had climbed up a steep incline with little more than loose gravel to plant a hoof on to get this far, and a muddy streambed lay between them and the gemstone deposits still.
Lyra’s device was showing signs of the kind of gemstones they needed, making the tiresome trip worth it. Moonshine, Clover, Brimstone and Lyra made it up the rest of the hill and paused for a breath, and a drink from the canteen.
Lyra tried her own canteen, and discovered it to be empty. She looked around at the others finishing theirs off, feeling a dryness in her throat. Moonshine noticed that she was without water, and beckoned for Lyra to follow him toward the stream.
“You see, these canteens are smart,” he said, “It’s not just there to fill up with water, it actually can purify and sterilize just about anything. It’s designed to make the nastiest of swamp water safe to drink in a survival setting.”
He waded into the stream, and motioned for Lyra to toss him the canteen she had been given. She complied, and in a moment the commander had her canteen filled with water from the gurgling brook. He pressed something on the side of it, and the container vibrated for about five seconds before becoming still again.
“There we go, all clean,” he said.
Moonshine then went to wade back out of the muddy stream when something caught his eye, making him freeze in place. Lyra felt the ground shake, and the sun’s rays were quickly stifled around her, and she was cast in the shadow of something much larger than herself.
The creature stood as still as the pony herself, sniffing the air. Lyra couldn’t help but notice the odor of the creature, a foul smell worse than the likes of rotting garbage. The creature hadn’t noticed her and continued to walk past after a moment, approaching the stream’s edge.
It hadn’t seen Moonshine, either.
The creature was gargantuan in size; to Lyra it looked like a moving building with pebbled red skin. The reason it stank was now clear to her: this was a carnivore. Rows of long teeth jutted out from the top of the dinosaurs mouth and over the closed lower jaw.
It looked like a Tyrannosaur to her, and she found herself trying to imagine the skeletons she had seen in museums and the pictures scribbled in old books juxtaposed upon the creature before her. She couldn’t focus on it enough; no amount of romantic nostalgia about the dinosaurs could lessen the terror she felt. This thing was a killing machine, and one false move could make herself its next meal.
The great head of the T. Rex dipped down to lap at the stream’s water, meters away from the frozen Moonshine. He, like Lyra, found himself unable to move an inch for fear of being seen.
The most inopportune thing happened to Moonshine at that moment. A snapping turtle that had been lurking in the waters of the stream near to him decided to lash out in an attempt to defend itself against his intruding hooves. The sudden pain of the creature biting into his leg cause Moonshine to cry out.
The Tyrannosaur’s head snapped up, and it roared at the creature it had been startled by. Out of reflex, Moonshine did the only thing he could and took off running down the streambed, dragging a snapping turtle on the back of his left hind leg.
The Tyrannosaur gave chase, following Moonshine after he ducked under a low-hanging branch. The dinosaur broke through it, and the next thing all of the ponies watching saw was the giant head sweeping down as a gargled scream erupted from Moonshine’s lungs.
Looking both ways furtively, the Rex bent over its kill. It sniffed at the air, trying to seek out other predators that might try to steal its prize. It caught the scent of the ponies, and its head snapped up to stare right at them.
The beast snarled.
“Everypony, run!” shouted Brimstone’s voice.
The remaining group bolted for the nearest cover they could find- a crop of boulders at the base of the rock wall. Lyra sloshed through the stream and launched herself over one of the large rocks, ducking behind it to avoid being seen by the dinosaur.
Clover was at her side, and the two watched over the top of a large boulder while the Tyrannosaurus lumbered nearer. It paused every few steps to sniff at the air, and growled at them.
“She’s trying to scare us off, so we won’t steal her kill,” Clover whispered, “Look, she’s retreating.”
The T. Rex went back, scooped up the limp form that was once Moonshine, and stomped back into the treeline.
Lyra let out a breath. She felt sick to her stomach, and not from the dinosaur’s stench. Brimstone motioned for them all to regroup against the rock wall, near a dark opening to a system of caves.
“Everypony else unhurt?” she asked. The response was mixed. Nopony was seriously injured, but all were visibly shaken.
“Commander Moonshine is dead, that leaves me in charge of this group,” she continued, “I wish I could say something fitting, but I’m really at a loss for words. For now, we must accomplish the task at hoof.”
The ponies continued into the caves.
****
Derpy could tell that something was stalking them. Every time she looked over her shoulder, something disappeared back into the shadows too quickly for her to get a good look. It didn’t want to be seen by them.
“Doctor,” she said over the comm, “Do you see that?”
“Mosasaur,” he answered, “It’s following us.”
“Sweet Celestia.....” Starstruck whispered, “What’s a Mosasaur?”
“No time,” the Doctor replied, suddenly speaking very deliberately, “All of you, slowly lower yourself and find the edge of the rocks. Get down into a crevice, now.”
“What’s going on?”
“Quickly, but without any sudden movement....”
The attack came quite suddenly. One of the divers was struck by a large animal swooping in out of the darkness, caught in a snout full of teeth. The Mosasaur stole away with its prey as quickly as it had appeared, disappearing into the darkness and leaving nothing but a trail of bubbles and screaming over the comm system.
Derpy found herself backed up against something slimy on the bottom. She turned to find that she had backed herself up against a rock pillar jutting out from the lakebed, which was covered in algae and slime. She dove down deeper, trying to make out features on the bottom of the lake from the darkness.
The Mosasaur wheeled about, catching her scent.
Derpy sensed the lake monster gliding toward her, preparing to strike her with it’s jaws and carry her away. Just a few more strokes downward and she would be able to hide in the rocks on the bottom.
She saw it! A blue box marked with “Police Public Call Box” above the windows! Derpy frantically grasped for the key, which was tucked inside the neck of her wetsuit. The Mosasaur sat above her, very still and clutching a struggling Cinder in its jaws
Extricating the key, Derpy fumbled to try to fit it into the TARDIS doors, just as the Mosasaur sprung into action. The doors opened, and Derpy was sucked inside with a rush of lakewater!
The doors slammed shut, and a loud thump signalled the Mosasaur striking them. The creature frustratedly struck at the sides, screeching through the water and sending bubbles floating skyward.
Derpy sat on the grated floor, wet and weary. She went to peel the wetsuit off, tossing it in a heap on the floor. Her leg muscles ached, and all she could do was lay on the floor and breath.
The thumping continued against the door. A tinny voice from inside the discarded wetsuit heap cried out to her.
“Open the doors!”
Derpy stood up, and reached for the door’s handles to open them. As soon as she pulled, more lakewater rushed in and three more forms flopped onto the grated floor. Something below did not like the water, and crackled angrily.
The doors shut, but the thumping continued. The Mosasaur had lost another meal, and it was frustrated.
The Doctor removed his wetsuit and was breathing just as heavily as Derpy had been. His maroon jumper was soaked through, and he shook himself off like a dog.
Starstruck and Cinder had made it in as well. Cinder had a nasty-looking leg which had been torn open by the Mosasaur attack. Captain Starstruck was busy tending to her crewmember’s injury.
The Doctor circled the TARDIS console, grinning ear to ear again.
“That was Fantastic!” he cried, “I feel so alive! Full of energy and adrenaline!”
“Do you have any medkits?”
“What?”
“Medkits,” repeated Starstruck, “Cinder’s hurt.”
****
A snarling raptor snapped at Lyra’s hoof, but she pulled it away with a scream of terror.
The group was crawling faster through a system of rocky caves in an attempt to lose the pack of flesh-eating dinosaurs in pursuit.
The Deinonychus had moved in after them not long after the Tyrannosaur’s departure, having picked up their scent. Perhaps the pack had been carefully trailing them for some time.
Brimstone was the last one to ascend a vertical crack in the rock just wide enough to fit a pony. One of the dinosaurs squatted down on its knees for a moment and sprang up at her, jaws snapping less than centimeters away from her back legs.
With a grunt, she used her upper-body strength to pull her own weight up the rest of the way, and onto the ledge with the rest of the ponies.
They were stuck up there with nowhere to go, but at least the Deinonychus were at bay. The dinosaurs didn’t seem to mind waiting. They paced back and forth near the mouth of the cave, calling to each other and hissing.
The hissing grew more and more irritated, and dirt began to fly about as if caught up in the breeze. A raptor cried out to the others, and started backing away from the cave entrance. Other followed suit, and a loud groaning filled the cavern.
A blue light flashed, and a box faded into view from nothingness. The Deinonychus snarled and scratched at the back of the newly-rematerialized TARDIS now blocking the cave entrance, but were unable to get past it.
The Doctor bounded out first, and the inside of the TARDIS cast a blueish light on the rock walls of the caves. Derpy exited next along with Starstruck and Cinder, whose leg was done up in bandages.
“What’re you all doing up there for?” the Doctor said, smiling up at the group of ponies, “Found you lot on the scanners.”
One by one, each pony descended the makeshift hole in the ceiling they had been hiding in. Lyra threw herself at the Doctor and hugged him tightly.
“We were being hunted by those Velociraptors out there,” she said.
“You mean Deinonychus,” corrected Clover, “That ship of yours is what’s keeping them out.”
“Fantastic,” the Doctor said, “And the gemstones?”
“We weren’t able to get to work because of the dinosaurs,” Brimstone replied, “but now that we’re somewhat safe, we can cut them out with hoof tools. There’s a deposit of the kind we’re looking for just in a bit more.”
Starstruck looked at each of her crewmembers in turn, noticing who was missing. Without drawing much attention, she pulled Brimstone aside while the others got to work extracting the gemstones.
“Where’s Moonshine?” she asked.
“He didn’t make it,” answered the security officer calmly, “We... we were by the streambed stopping to refill water canisters, and a Tyrannosaurus came to visit. It got him first, but the rest of us escaped.”
Starstruck’s lower jaw tightened.
“Very well,” she said, “We will have to move on. Is there any chance of us recovering a body?”
“No,” Brimstone said, “The.... uh... the Tyrannosaur finished her meal, to put it bluntly.”
Starstruck sighed. She hadn’t lost a crewmember before, and this was her first officer they were talking about. They had both worked together in the Star Navy for years, and he was one of the ponies she had trusted the most.
His loss hurt her, but now was not the time for mourning.
Elsewhere, Cortland held aloft a chunk of clear crystalline gemstone, grinning from ear to ear. This was the exact type she needed to get the Poet’s engines turning again. They would be going home after all.
The ponies filed into the TARDIS at this point, and most of the Poet’s crew marveled at the vessel, and its interior dimensions and the advanced technology. Lyra leaned against the console, repeating the spiel that the Doctor often recited to newcomers while the Doctor left the box one more time to see where Derpy was.
She was staring at the rock wall, jaw open.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, looking into her eyes, “What are you staring at?”
“Look for yourself!” she cried, pointing at the stone wall. The Doctor followed her hoof, and his eyes widened.
Two words were scrawled on the stone wall in very large black letters seemingly burned into the rock.
BAD WOLF
“This is no coincidence,” the Doctor muttered.
“Bad Wolf.... I’ve heard those words before,” said Derpy, “That’s what was written onto the side of your TARDIS before you painted over the words!”
“Two words, following us wherever we go,” the Doctor said, “Bad Wolf. It means something, Derpy. It has to have some sort of meaning.”
“How did it get there?” she wondered, “Nopony has anything to go and write on the walls, let alone burn words in. There’s nothing sentient around that could make cave drawings, is there?”
“No,” the Doctor replied, “The closest thing I can think of is the Silurians, and they’re a few million years yet.”
“Hey!” Lyra called from within the TARDIS, “You two? Everypony’s ready to get back to the Poet and get out of here!”
****
The Poet groaned to life, lifting itself off of the ground. The tree branches whipped across the saucer of the ship as it rose above the treetops and above the forest. The ship began forward motion, zooming over the mountain and the jungle-filled valley on the other side. Sauropod heads poked out through the treetops, disturbed by the large metal object flying through the skies.
“We’ve got to build up momentum by circling the entire planet at low altitude like this,” Cortland explained, “It’s not designed for atmosphere travel, and we’ve got to break through gently.”
Accelerating through clouds and over the diminished oceans of the time, the ship was soon zooming over the forests and the wetlands of what would become Zebrica. Somewhere far below, a gigantic Spinosaur halted its fishing and surfaced to witness the colossal spacecraft streaking across the sky.
They flew over mountainous regions, cold regions, and arid regions. The ship gained altitude with its velocity, and gradually the air around the ship’s exterior grew thinner and thinner. The horizon bent and became curved, and the spherical planet grew smaller and smaller in perspective.
The Poet was in space now, calmly flying away from planet Earth.
The Doctor and his two companions stood near the window to space, peering out at the stars. Both Lyra and Derpy oohed and ahhed at the expanse of the stars outstretched before them. The Doctor simply stood on his hind legs and leaned against an unused console with his front legs tucked into the pockets of his leather jacket.
Suddenly, the ship swerved violently. The standing ponies were thrown to the ground, and sirens began to go off all over the ship. Something loud rumbled in the distance, before fading back to silence. The alarms gradually grew quieter.
“What in Celestia’s name was that?” Starstruck sputtered, “Clover?”
“We narrowly missed it, Captain,” Clover said, “It was a very large asteroid.”
“Asteroid? This far from the asteroid belt?””
“Look at the planet, Starstruck,” advised the Doctor.
The screen shifted to show planet Earth once again, this time with an asteroid rocketing toward it. The asteroid was bound for the planet, and tore through the atmosphere as if it wasn’t even there. It shrank in perspective to them, until the planet was suddenly aglow.
A humongous fireball engulfed part of the Earth’s surface, and smaller explosions appeared scattered throughout the planet. A shockwave ripped through the oceans, and dust filled the skies. Soon the planet was engulfed by this cloud of dust entirely.
“What you’re witnessing is the end of the Cretaceous era,” the Doctor said, “This asteroid spells doom for all of the Dinosaurs. With the exception of select clones brought back by the Silurians, all non-avian dinosaurs have effectively just died right before your eyes.”
The others on the bridge were silent, watching the planet burn over the viewscreen.
“It’s not as bad as you think, though,” he continued, “As I just said, the Silurians evolve from reptiles, and then millions of years later we get you lot! Sentient mammals like equines and all sorts of other beasts to walk the Earth come out of this disaster.”
“Doesn’t it bother you, though?” Starstruck asked, “Seeing the planet burn like that? Doesn’t it make your stomach turn over inside?”
The Doctor’s grin faded, and he shook his head slowly.
“I’ve seen other planets burn worse than this,” he said quietly.
They sat in silence for a moment until clover flicked the display off, and the window instead showed what was ahead of them. The sun’s light was dimmed to the point of being easy to look at with the naked eye by the screen.
“This is the spot,” the Doctor said, leaning over Clover’s shoulder to peer at the screen, “You’re going to want to align yourself there and punch through there. Entering the time tunnel should take you out to the other side, the same temporal point you entered it through initially.”
“Cortland, bring us to FTL,” ordered the Captain.
“You got it.”
The ship seemed to stretch, and when it snapped back it was hurtling forward in slightly warped space faster than the speed of light. The jury-rigged engines protested, but it was enough to break through the half-healed temporal wound and send the ship through the vortex once more.
By this point they were out of control, as if the vortex were sucking them in and sending them along of its own accord. Brimstone did the best she could from the navigation console given the automation running everything on the ship. She kept the Poet steady in the center of the vortex and kept it from scraping against the sides.
It all disappeared as quickly as the distortion had appeared. The ship was once again floating in regular space, and the course was modified to send them back toward Earth. The planet was blue, and covered in wispy white clouds.
****
“Doctor, I really appreciate the help,” Starstruck said. They were gathered in front of the TARDIS. Each pony had already said their goodbyes, and the two companions were entering the blue box.
“It’s nothing, really,” the Doctor said, “Good luck to you once you get your ship repaired. I’m sure you’re going to make a fantastic Captain. Go out there and explore the stars!”
He went to close the door of the TARDIS, but Starstruck’s hoof prevented him from closing it all the way.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, poking his head out again.
“It’s just that.... well, you never really told me your name,” she said, “We’ve all been calling you ‘Doctor’.... Doctor Who?”
The Doctor gave her a wide-eyed smile and backed himself into the TARDIS once again, closing the doors. A blue light flashed from on top. Engines began to groan once more, and the blue box began to fade from view
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3002815
hadn't thought of it, but now that you've said that.... I might just use it.
Most of the Poet's characters were recycled from another story I once wrote that I ended up not liking. Clover was the ship's science officer, with a cutie mark for plant and animal biology.
this was a nicely done story, though some parts felt a little fast and some a bit drawn out, but it's probably understandable when you are making a crossover of two completely different shows. i really am looking forward to this whole "bad wolf" thing. just going to say called it and leave it at that.
As someone who knows the story the guest characters came from, I have to say it's nice to see them again. And I see that they are just as adept at crashing every spaceship they get their hooves on as they used to be... ahem.
So, the story. As a whole, it wasn't bad at all, though it suffered from pacing problems and repetition (like in the beginning of chapter 2 where we are told that the sunlight was partially blocked because a tree branch was partially blocking the sunlight).
At first, the story appeared to be a sequence of minor inconveniences that, for the most part, were a bit too easily resolved, so I have to admit that later, as the story got a bit more intense, (Moonshine's) fate came as a surprise. On the other hand, since the characters weren't really fleshed out, it didn't leave much of an impact. You spent quite some time describing the various dinosaurs, relatively speaking, so I can't help but wish that you'd have done the same for the actual characters. As it is, they all sort of just blended together as an anonymous group of random ponies.
So yeah. And just in case this sounded too negative, I actually did enjoy reading it. I just wished there was a bit... more to it, I guess.
3154772
Thank you for this criticism.
I decided to re-use characters from the previous work, as I decided not to go anywhere with it in the first place. I actually may consider having the crew meet up with the Doctor later on down the road, who knows. Certainly there is room for character exploration.
As for the narrative being riddled with inconveniences that are soon resolved... I've been watching mostly Classic Who recently, and many of the stories are sort of like this. The New Series tends to do this a little bit differently because an entire story is ~45 minutes long instead of the several hours of the typical Classic Who outing which would span 4 or more serials of 25 minutes apiece.
I'm glad that you liked it though.
The next story is roughly 2/3rd of the way done.
I like this. More. Now.